December 15, 2009

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Obama Administration officials are assuring members of Congress that terror suspects like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed won't receive asylum if they are brought to the United States for trial.

In response to a query from the seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said that the prisoners won't be considered admitted to the U.S. under immigration law but will simply be "paroled" meaning they "are treated as though they are still at the border applying for admission."

However, Holder and Napolitano acknowledged that treaty obligations under the U.N. Convention Against Torture would bar the U.S. from sending KSM or other prisoners to countries where they were more likely than not to be tortured. "In the event this policy precludes repatriation of a detainee whom the United States seeks to transfer abroad, U.S. policy would be to work to identify an alternative resettlement country," they wrote. They also noted that the CAT, as insiders call it, applies to U.S. held prisoners regardless of whether they're on U.S. soil or not.